Baptism of Fire: The Birth of the Modern British Fantastic in World War I

Baptism of Fire examines selected examples of the fantastic response to World War I among British authors. The contents comprise a mix of five classic articles from the pages of Mythlore and twelve new essays. The first half of the book considers the Inklings, the Oxford literary group centered on J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, while the second half deals with other More

World War I has been called “the poets’ war,” as it was characterized by a massive outpouring of works of literature during and after the war. Much of this literary harvest, as Paul Fussell brilliantly demonstrated in The Great War and Modern Memory, hinged on an ironic response to the deadly absurdities of World War I. Yet, Fussell also acknowledges that fantasy could be a legitimate literary response to the war, a way of transforming the horrible experiences of the war into something more bearable, applicable, and relevant; into myth and “Escape” in the sense that Tolkien used the term in “On Fairy-stories.” This present volume sprang from a desire to examine selected examples of the fantastic response to World War I among British authors. The contents comprise a mix of five classic articles from the pages of Mythlore and twelve new essays. The first half of the book considers the Inklings, the Oxford literary group centered on J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, while the second half deals with other authors.

Janet Brennan Croft is Head of Access and Delivery Services and Faculty of Research and Instructional Services for the Rutgers University libraries. She is the author of War in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien (Praeger, 2004; winner, Mythopoeic Society Award for Inklings Studies) and has written on the Peter Jackson films, J. K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, and other authors. She is the editor or co-editor of four collections of literary essays. She also edits the refereed scholarly journal Mythlore and serves on the Mythopoeic Press Editorial Board.